oldcutlass

Well i'm working on my 5th week as a non-smoker again. As some of you know, when I picked up the Olds I quit smoking for about a year and built most of the car with cigarette money.

It was really hard giving them up after 40 years the first time. And through an act of stupidity I should have never smoked one again on a whim. It's not that I worry about the health ramifications, I really enjoyed it, I just can't see spending $2-250 per month on something like smoking anymore. So from now on I'm going to waste my money on cars. At least I'll have something to show for it.

Wish me luck folks, got my helmut, I'm going in.

mpolds

Maybe you'd be happy to learn that cigarettes are $ 10 - 12 a pack here in New York -- maybe that alone will deter some people from that nasty habit.

For the countless others that hack and wheeze, smell like nicotine, and disgust all those around them -- maybe consider this.

IT IS YOUR DEATH -- you Knuckleheads -- you are committing suicide in a not-so-quick fashion, and not being able to inhale nice country fresh air when you are in the country.......

For five weeks, you are welcome back to LIFE -- may you live and drive a long prosperous one now---------------

don71

Yea, thats a tough one. Best of luck to you. Just keep thinking the end game...car stuff...car stuff.

stan 65 cutlass

Good luck, i quit cold turkey a few years back, never looked back, never Even think about it now, used to sit in the smokin section at the bar with my friends, never caved once. Mind over matter, just do it.

GAOldsman

Good luck brother STAY STRONG

J-(Chicago)

I quit about 4 times per day......until the next one that is. Haha. At least I don't smoke like a chimney, and I can still nab them for $40 per carton.

Jaybird

It's $63.00 per carton in Ontario for the mid price smokes.

m371961

Good luck. What gets me, is the taxes on them go up. Less people smoke. The government gets hooked on the extra revenue. When the revenue from tobacco drops, they will reach into non smokers pockets to make it up.
And the bull of the cost of medical treatment for smokers. I am saving non smokers money by shortening my life thus saving excessive social security and medicare costs.
But, in any case, good luck and I wish you well. There are some things I just don't want to deny myself of.

gearheads78

Good luck man. I am lucky enough to have never started even though lots of people around me always have.

coldwar

I don't want to fan flames with pun intended but anyone smoking in 2013 has made a pure, selfish choice. The previous poster is spot-on correct, just follow the money: if it was not for the tax revenue involved, smoking would have been outlawed long ago. I ceased to care about anyone's personal choice to 'do what they want' after having to watch family slowly die of emphysemic COPD over about five years, then ending in a horrible protracted choking death which we had to witness in the case of my mother in law at age 67 after her 56 years of smoking. In all my cases, they too were doing 'what they wanted to do', and before the end-life onset of the disease universally declared 'no life support or sustanance for me, just pull the plug...' that is until the end of life actually looms, then the cry is 'save me at all cost....'. Watching someone die slowly having their personal choice in the back of your mind is the hardest thing I have had to experience including witnessing sudden violent human death, it has unvoluntarily changed my outlook and life priorities permanently. So you who must smoke ignore the considerations of your survivors, and the trauma you surrender control of once the disease progresses beyond your control. Living wills and durable power of attorney are useful aids but can go out the window once the person involved faces near death. And to those who want to point to a 90 year old relative who smoked, we are now in the age of manipulated tobacco content, no smoker will escape even some consequences assuming reaching the age of 65 or better. My Dad quit in 1972 after the second surgeon generals warning and now at age 82 has advancing E-COPD, at least four more people close to me are facing the disease now. There may be other environmental concerns such as low level ozone (proven) or second hand cig smoke (not proven), but one who smokes is proven to greatly amplify any of the external contributors. Anyone here know Dennis Urban other then I, 1964 442 guru? His early death is another reminder. To the original poster who is trying to quit, bravo, your survivors are thankful for your effort.

oldcutlass

Coldwar I do somewhat agree as to the health ramifications of smoking. I too have had a great many close friends and family die over the years, and a good percentage that died from other causes. This is not my argument and definately has no impact on my decision to smoke or not. Believe me during my 40 years of smoking I know that possibly I fall under the term "too stupid to live". My decision is purely financial. After some serious cypherin, I know how much I spend every month in smokes and just could not do it any longer.

Thank you to all that gave support to my quest to finally becoming a non-smoker.

DENT

I wish you the best effort to kick the habit , I did it more than 15 years ago and Im soooo glad I did.

Finn5033

@coldwar

I hear what your saying, I watched my Grandfather deteriorate over 5 years or so and die of throat cancer from smoking and to my utter shock I know I will have to watch my Father deteriorate and die from smoking as well. I have gone back and forth with the anger of it and at the end of the day decided to just enjoy the good time I have with him and deal with the bad when it comes.

Nilsson

I am just the opposite, I did not care how much smoking cost I loved to smoke and I could afford it. I quit 4 years ago after smoking for 38 years because I do not wish to die of smoking related reasons. Any other reason I am ok with.

Glad I did and hope you quit for good.

You can do it.

cutlassgal

Good luck to ya!! Hang in there. That's one of the hardest things I've ever done. I quit about 9 years ago and sorry to say I haven't lost that craving. I could start again in a heartbeat! I enjoyed my smokes. But they just got too darned expensive. One of the guys I work with smokes, and he comes in from smoking all nasty smelling, the trash can stinks where he throws the butts in, his breath stinks.... You don't realize how nasty you smell while you're smoking, lol. I used the Commit lozenge to help me stop. It's expensive, but it worked. You can do it!!!

Big red72

Good luckl! Keep us posted....maybe it will give me yet another reason to try to quit again.

XMWZ001

I would 2nd that!

Allan R

Eric, I'm proud of you! Although a non smoker I can appreciate how tough it is. So for the next little while if you get beeeactchy or snarly we'll know why. Hope you're successful.

LOL when I first read the title of the thread I thought you'd fixed a set of valve seals or redone the rings on your car.....

oldcutlass

That's the other thing I'm afraid of, with me granted smoking probably will never save my life, it has however saved countless others. Smoking for me was a stress relief, and we all know what the true definition of stress is?

The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to beat the living **** out of some idiot that desperately deserves it.

MDchanic

Best of luck, Eric! You can do it.

I'm "lucky" to have had parents who smoked like chimneys throughout my childhood, so I resolved early on that I'd never smoke one of those things as long as I lived (Heck, I "smoked" enough of them while sitting in the back seat of the car with the windows closed), and I stuck with it.

- Eric

dfire25

Well said mobileparts!
I have been a firefighter paramedic for the last 15 years and I've seen my share of people dead, dying, and suffering from the direct affects of cigaret smoking. My favorite answer from people when asked why they smoke is "you have to die from something someday". If you think your just going to drop dead one day from smoking your sadly mistaken. It is a slow painful death and it is not pretty. TRUST ME! I HAVE SEEN IT A MILLION TIMES! If you think gasping for air when your on oxygen or drowning in your own body fluids in your lungs on dry land is cool, then puff away marabrol man! And there's not a damn thing I can do to help you!

I remember one patient specifically, a 67 year old guy dying of emphezema. Of course he would call all the time about 2-3am because he couldn't breath anymore. I remember walking through his house that reeked of cigaret smoke and seeing all the full ashtrays. I finally asked him one night when he was gasping for air "why are you still smoking?" He responded that he enjoyed it too much, I then asked him if he was enjoying himself right now? He just kinda gleared at me. Insensitive on my part? Maybe. But I have little sympathy for someone who has a direct impact on their life or health and refuses to do nothing.

I wish you good luck with quitting smoking. Just think of your family and friend and that should be inspiration as well. Remember it's just as hard, if not worse, on them watching you die. My wife and I had to watch both of her parents die a slow death from emphezema and it took a lot out of her.

Nilsson

Another good reason to quit smoking is it causes ED. That in itself should be a good enough reason for any man to want to stop.

oldcutlass

OMG!!!!! They should print that on the side of the pack, with a pic.

z11375ss

Just remember, nobody likes a quitter.

djcrook73

good luck brother! i was fortunate enough to quit in 1990 and stuck with it.. it's a tank of gas a week for cruising our classics or for mods when were not! i hope you are able to do it this time as usually just a drag of one makes a quitter quit quitting! say that ten times fast! dave

Sampson

Good for you Eric, One hour , one day, one week at a time. Been there done that. Smoked 25 plus years. 2-3 packs per day. Had a heart attach at 44 when my kids were 10 & 13. Dr was pretty blunt. Said you can keep smokin and be dead in less than 5 or you can quit and your odds of survival will return to that of a non smoker in 5 . Been smoke free for13 yrs and if I went to the Dr tomorrow and he said I had six weeks to live I would buy a pack before I got home! Like I said 1 day at a time and good luck

MDchanic

Everyone who gas welds knows that the ONE thing you never do (other than welding gas tanks with fumes in them) is to blow sweat or grinding dust off yourself with oxygen.
The reason for this is that oxygen (being just a teeny tiny molecule) has a way of getting right in between all the fibers of your clothing, essentially soaking it through like water.
The reason why this is important is because clothing soaked through with oxygen behaves exactly like clothing soaked through with gasoline does when exposed to an open flame.

WHHOOOOOOSSHH!!!

Anyway, I had occasion to interact with a woman a number of years ago who was a lifelong smoker with severe lung disease, who required oxygen and still smoked.

You know how they say you shouldn't smoke in bed, and especially with oxygen on?

Well, she was one of those determined smokers, who would never quit because she "liked it," and she felt it was her right to have a smoke in bed (actually, with her breathing, it was hard to get OUT of bed), and had no reservations about doing so with her oxygen on.

The fact that at the time she was recovering fron second and third degree burns to her entire body, and looked as if someone had thrown napalm on her, of course comes as no surprise at this point, but the fact that you DON'T expect now is that this was the second time she had done this, and the second set of third degree burns she was recovering from.
She "enjoyed" smoking so much that even when she had personally experienced what would happen, she did it again.

Don't start smoking kids, or Uncle Eric is gonna come along and break all your fingers and stuff a can of CS gas down your gullet.


It's one of two main causes, right next to diabetes (which, in many cases, is also preventable, by just yanking your muzzle out of the food trough from time to time).

- Eric

oldcutlass

Thanks again, i can always depend on every1's sense of humor.

Nilsson

" if I went to the Dr tomorrow and he said I had six weeks to live I would buy a pack before I got home"

I want a case of Camel Filters and a barrel of Makers Mark in my last days . I also quit drinking 13 years ago.

oldcutlass

I quit drinking too - a long time ago and by far that was easier than trying to quit smoking, lol.

And if the doc told me six weeks - i'd be rith there with ya.

Allan R

Crap, be careful how far you want to take this. Next thing you don't want to post is giving up sex.... My wife is a firm believer in 'use it or lose it' so I've no plans to join the 'Bobbit' clan.

oldcutlass

Why does sex always get drawn into conversations-I have no intensions of quitting that!!

Allan R

Cause we're not allowed to discuss religion or pollytiks. So that just leaves.....ummm...you know.

oldcutlass

Not going there!

oldcutlass

Ok - week #6 of no smoking. I decided to take my life one more step and quit my car sales job of 9 years.

Yes, I am unemployed and debating on staying that way while doing odd car related work for friends. First job is to reassemble a 66 Corvette Roadster-427/4spd, that a so called restorer scattered across his shop. I figure a few weeks to get it all back together and the body mounted so the owner can get it off to a paint shop.

I have an opportunity @ 54 to relax and possibly retire. Everything my wife and I own is payed for and I have a bit of cash put away. So if our cypherin is correct it would not take much extra cash to meet minimum requirements.

So we will see how things progress.

Sampson

Good for you Man. I hope it works for you. Keep off the butts and have a little fun with that Vett Project.

MDchanic

Fantastic! That's what we all like to hear.

- Eric

RonFX

Guys:
I quit back in 2000 thru hypnosis, I tried the patch and pills, they worked for awhile. I tell myself it is like being an alcoholic or drug addict, there is NO such thing as just a little, ONE little puff and you will be smoking 2-2 1/2 packs each day like the past. Stay strong and you will stay clean, that also goes for other BAD things I gave up as well, this way I can be around to enjoy my family and not rob them of time I spent slowly killing myself physically and spiritually as well.
Ron

Allan R

Welcome to the club!! One good thing you got over me though is all that nice weather....Enjoy BOTH of your new freedoms.

pcard

Good Luck Eric. My wife has been trying to quit since our daughter was born 26 years ago, and I know it is not easy. We will understand if you get a bit testy at times

Especially good luck with your new career - I sure am envious!

As for Vettes - I have a friend who is battling cancer. He has moved to Florida for a few months for treatment, and has gotten bitten by the Vette bug - he used to drive one in university - a 1970 I believe. There are a few forums out there, but can you recommend one? He wants to "tune in" before making a purchase. He will be taking the car to Southern France where he hopes to retire.

Cheers, Peter